Accepted Paper
Paper short abstract
This study examines the national vision of right-wing student organizations in Japan that opposed communism while rejecting the U.S.-centered international order. Focusing on the 1972 normalization of Japan–China relations, it shows how changes in the Cold War shaped an exclusionary nationalism.
Paper long abstract
This study examines how right-wing student organizations in Japan understood the nation while opposing communism and rejecting the U.S.-centered international order. It focuses on how their views of Asia changed after the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China in 1972. The restoration of relations with China, an Asian communist country, challenged their anti-American arguments, which had been based on ideas of solidarity with Asia. As a result, their claims gradually shifted toward a narrow and inward-looking nationalism that included a negative view of Asia.
Right-wing student organizations developed as a reaction to the left-wing student movements that spread across Japanese universities in 1968. For this reason, earlier studies mainly described these groups as anti-communist actors and treated their activities as short-lived. As a result, they were often overlooked in studies of Japanese political history. In recent years, however, scholars have begun to reconsider these organizations as ideological origins of nationalist right-wing groups that have become more visible since the 2010s. Even so, due to limited historical sources, it is still unclear how the ideas of right-wing student organizations were passed on to present-day right-wing movements.
To address this problem, this study analyzes student newspapers kept at universities such as Takushoku University, where right-wing student activism was especially strong. By closely examining these materials, the study clarifies the ideas of right-wing student organizations based on anti-communism and Asianism. It argues that changes in the Cold War environment altered their view of Asia and helped create an exclusionary, nation-centered ideology that continues to influence contemporary right-wing politics in Japan.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed): | 本研究は、共産主義と闘う一方で、アメリカを中心とする国際秩序を否定していた右派学生団体が、いかなる国家構想を抱いていたのかを明らかにすることを目的とする。とりわけ、1972年の日中国交正常化が彼らのアジア観にもたらした変化に着目する。中国というアジアの共産主義国家との国交回復は、アジアとの連帯を掲げた反米主義的言説を前提から揺るがし、その結果、彼らの主張は次第にアジア蔑視を伴う排他的な自国中心主義へと変容していった。 右派学生団体は、1968年に各地の大学で発生した左翼学生運動への対抗勢力として形成された。そのため先行研究では、彼らは主として反共産主義者として位置づけられ、その運動は一過性の現象として日本政治史の分析対象から周縁化されてきた。近年、これらの団体は、2010年代以降に台頭した自国中心主義的右派団体の思想的源流として再評価されつつある。しかし、史料的制約のため、右派学生団体の言説が現在の右派運動にどのように継承されているのかについては、十分に解明されていない。 そこで本研究は、拓殖大学をはじめとする右派学生運動が活発であった大学に所蔵される学生新聞を分析対象とし、反共産主義とアジア主義に立脚した右派学生団体の言説を包括的に検討する。これにより、冷戦構造の変容が彼らのアジア観を屈折させ、今日に至る排他的な自国中心主義を形成する過程を明らかにする。 |
Reconsidering Japan's Approaches to the Cold War